Girls don’t have to run as fast as boys

“In regards to body strength, boys and girls are built differently,” said Physical Education teacher Nick Guida. “It’s like comparing apples to oranges, not apples to apples.”

For a boy to get 11 points on the mile, he must run it in under 5 minutes and 45 seconds. For a girl to get the same score, she has to run it in under 7 minutes and 30 seconds. Is this fair? Of 30 randomly-selected students surveyed 77 percent of male students and 40 percent of female students believe it isn’t fair.

“It makes me mad, because men and women are supposed to be equal, so why don’t they have to run as fast as us?” said Sophomore Eric Anderson. “I’d be happy if both girls and boys only had to run the mile in 7:30.”

The school’s mile times were adopted from the National Fitness Standards, which also expects boys to physically outperform girls. The standards rarely change significantly.

“The main reason is testosterone,” Physical Education teacher Jason Karn began. “Boys just produce more testosterone than girls, which makes them physiologically different. This isn’t always the case, though.There are a lot of girls that can run fast, and a lot of boys that can run fast, but overall, boys have an advantage.”